Date Point 3 Years After Vancouver
Cimbrean Palace
Jennifer Delaney. Mid-twenties, space-babe pirate queen. Haunted. Driven. Sweaty.
Sweat poured from her brow as she continued her self-imposed exercise regime, a solid mix of cardio and weights, along with some serious martial arts training. She didn’t know much in the way of martial arts, that was true, but she had taken a womens self-defense course once or twice when it was offered for free by the local council and there had also been the summer her brothers had forced her to learn how to fight so she could stop Moyra Carran from teasing her. At the very least they’d taught her well enough to knock Moyra’s front fucking teeth out, so she supposed that maybe it was time to bring a bit of the old tomboy back.
Jennifer Delaney was not going to be beaten again. She was not going to be hurt by any man, any alien, any thing. She was determined to become what she had to be because what she had been had been so incredibly insufficient.
And she still saw that fucker’s face when she closed her eyes. His smile…
She hated that smug fucker so much she almost wished he wasn’t dead so that she could have been the one to kill him. He had beaten her, he had broken her, and the Jennifer Delaney of three months ago was gone. That left the Jennifer Delaney that had punched a girl’s teeth out just for calling her fat; the Jennifer Delaney who’d put one of her brothers in hospital just because he wouldn’t fuck off and leave her alone; the Jennifer Delaney who was angry all of the time.
The others occasionally watched her train, stuck somewhere between awe and fear. The friendly, casual relationship they had had prior to Irbzrk was gone with the old Jen, and now they obeyed when she gave them an order. The crew of the Zhadersil wasn’t her play attempt at a pirating democracy anymore, it was a cold, well-oiled machine that brought the Celzi alliance closer to economic collapse every day, and in the past three months her fleet and her troops had grown in number. They were practically an army now, and trade in the Alliance had all but ceased.
The Dominion was very pleased.
Good for them; Jen didn’t do it to please them anymore. She didn’t do it so that the Dominion would pay them. She did it so that everybody would know to fear the name of Jennifer Delaney, to dread the name of the Zhadersil. If they were afraid of her, they wouldn’t send thugs like Cameron White after her anymore, they’d send an army. And if they sent an army… well, the last three months had provided ample resources for them to fight one of those as well.
She wondered if this was what Adrian had felt, this deep need to attack until all of the dangers were gone. It was easy to imagine letting herself get lost in the anger and pain and to destroy until there was nothing left to cause either.
Finally she stopped her assault on the sand-filled bag, and wiped the sweat away with the thick towel she kept for the express purpose. Next would come her stretches and then a bath – even the new Jen enjoyed those – and then a bite to eat before she patrolled the increasingly well-provisioned defensive web.
“Trycrur,” she said, activating her communicator as she slipped it back on. “Do you hear me?”
“Yes, Jen,” Trycrur responded after a moment. “I’m out on the Defensive Web… did you need something?”
“I’m going to be taking a patrol through that later, is there anything I need to be aware of?”
“The Eastern section is undergoing an upgrade using those new coilguns we took from the Celzi cruiser we stole from the shipyard,” Trycrur replied. “I’m going to be increasing its power supply to fall into line with the others, so you should stay clear of it until I’m done.”
“Understood,” Jen replied, “is that all?”
“That’s all.”
Jen ended the link, and opened a new one to Chir.
“Chir, what’s your status?” she asked.
“Unloading materials for use in the weapons you were discussing with Trycrur at our last meeting,” Chir promptly replied. “The ‘missiles’ that she made for the Zhadersil, with some tweaks. This is the last of the explosives we require for the number you specified.”
“Good work,” Jen said. “When you’re done with that, organise a run against one of the listed targets. We need to keep the pressure up.”
“I’ll inform Zripob to ready his team,” Chir said. “I’ll also put in an order to get more medical supplies.”
“Only half of what they have,” Jen reminded him, “we’re not monsters. They just need to remember that the Alliance isn’t looking after them.”
“I know that,” Chir replied, sounding slightly hurt.
“That wasn’t instruction for your benefit, Chir,” Jen replied quickly. “Make sure that Zripob understands it is an order.”
Chir sighed over the link. “Understood.”
The last of her pre-bath business was completed, and Jen set about making good on her plans for relaxation. There was, after all, little benefit to being pirate queen if she didn’t have time to engage in the small luxuries that made living out amongst the stars tolerable.
She slipped out of her clothing and into the waters her servants had drawn for her. That was another benefit of running a small pirating empire – being able to employee people to run around and take care of the little chores that got in the way of the big things. Her clothes had already been whisked away before she was reclining in the steaming waters, leaning back so that with the exception of her face her whole body was underwater. Her long red hair floated freely around her head like a coppery halo, shimmering as it reflected the warm light of the wide glowing orb that illuminated the room.
Here in the hot water she could let her eyes close and her body relax. It was as if this bathtub was the impenetrable heart of her empire, that even though this was where she was at her most vulnerable, the warm waters that embraced her could also protect her like a shield against life’s misfortunes. Here she could let her mind return to that day – as her mind was inclined to do any time she closed her eyes for more than a few moments – and feel no fear, no hate, no anything. She could see it again as if she were only an observer, and could at least try to focus on other things.
Other things like the blue creature that had saved her from White. The blue-hairy creature had worn shorts, she had remembered that with a laugh. It was as though he had been trying to impersonate Beast from X-Men, but hadn’t quite managed it.
That hadn’t stopped her from naming him Beast, because nobody else could tell her anything about him at all. Not his name, not his species, not where he came from or why he had taken an interest in beating the daylights out of White while saving her life. Beast was a mystery.
But he had noticed her watching him, before she had slipped into unconsciousness. He had been on the verge of killing White – she wouldn’t have blamed him if he had – but he had stopped at the last moment and had been stricken. He was an alien, but she was sure there had been sorrow in his eyes. She was entirely certain of that.
Those eyes had haunted her even more profoundly, in some ways, than White’s had. At least with White the reasons were clear, his motives, while twisted, were basic and could be understood from a certain perverse point of view. White was a monster, and any mysteries about him were of no interest to anyone anymore. Beast was a monster too, a savage brute of a creature capable of overpowering a human man of White’s size – which led to the question of how it was nobody knew anything about such a species when there was such an uproar about humanity – but Beast had something else…
She had it! Beast had the same intensity that had allured her to Adrian!
That made her laugh out loud. God, surely she couldn’t be horny for a big blue alien! She must have PTSD bad if she was willing to go to bed with anything just because it could protect her by beating a man to death in a savage rage.
She smiled like an idiot for the rest of her bath, glad at least that she could still laugh at herself. After all, you had to enjoy the small things or you’d go completely bonkers.
Local Space near Cavaras, Corti Directorate Core World
“I have you now,” Adrian said, leering over the small Corti with a predatory grin. “No escape.”
“Check,” Askit replied, moving his bishop into position, “and Mate.”
Askit savoured the pause as Adrian tried to figure out what had just happened.
“You talk shit,” Adrian replied in clear disbelief. “How the fuck did you manage that?”
“My species genetically modified themselves to enhance our intellect to genius levels,” Askit told him. “Alternatively, have you considered that you might just not be any good?”
Adrian laughed. “Well, fuck you too.”
Their communicators beeped simultaneously and they shared a glance before turning their eyes towards the devices, although they already knew what they’d see there.
“Message from Gdugnir,” Adrian said. “Looks like it’s time then.”
They clicked on their utility belts, giving each other a brief check.
“You’re ready for this?” Askit asked Adrian, just in case there was any chance that he wasn’t. It didn’t seem very likely.
“Mate, I’m a hairy blue ball of violence,” Adrian replied. “I was born ready.”
“Savage violence,” Askit corrected, “and good to hear. It’s a pity that this is a diplomatic meeting, then.”
“Big fucking pity,” Adrian agreed. “But maybe they’ll have canapés?”
“What are canapés?” Askit asked. “They’re not like Cornettos, are they? Because I checked…”
“Canapés,” Adrian said, looking dumbfounded that nobody knew what he was talking about, like that was some new kind of problem. “You know, finger food… horses doovers.”
Askit frowned. “I don’t know what a ‘horse’ is, but if my translator worked properly I don’t think they’ll be serving those.”
“We’re docking now,” Gdugnir said over the speaker system. “Try not to kill the important people this time.”
“She says it like it wasn’t self-defense last time,” Adrian replied with a grimace.
“I’m not sure self-defense warranted using the meeting table as some sort of bludgeoning weapon,” Askit mused. “Maybe this time just hurt them enough to… re-strategise to a non-violent solution?”
“To surrender, you mean?” Adrian asked. “I told them to surrender…”
“You were screaming, as I recall it, something along the lines of ‘fuck all you fucking fuckers, on the floor right fucking now or I’ll fucking fuck the fuck out of you’,” Askit reminded him. “Although I may paraphrase.”
Adrian cleared his throat, and had the decency to look embarrassed. “It was ‘I’ll fucking kick the fuck out of you’…”
“My mistake,” Askit said. “I’ll endeavour for greater accuracy in future. Ah, look! The door is opening!”
They both stood ready, although Askit pointedly stood behind the big blue human in case of some sort of incredibly violent assault as soon as the doors opened. Were that to occur, Askit did want to be between Adrian and the people he was about to kill.
There was no sudden barrage of weaponsfire and onslaught of violence. The nearest thing that Askit could consider to be an onslaught was being performed by the inept instrumentalist who was murdering the music of Tketh the Greater. But the instrumentalist was a Vzk’tk, so what could you expect?
“Ambassadors!” came the delighted call of their host, the reknown Rrrrtktktkp’ch businessman, Lrkk’tptkt. He was putting on the delight, of course – nobody in their right mind was delighted to see Adrian and Askit – but he was making every effort at cordiality and that was worth something. The winds of fortune had changed in the Directorate since Iridis Industries had suffered an unfortunate setback involving major destructive events at all its sites and in all its product warehouses. Those events had been ruled ‘suspicious’, but while the cases had been closed from lack of evidence, everybody who needed to know what had happened had learned it pretty damned fast. There was a secret war on within the Directorate and the Corporations that sought to control it, and as far as Askit could tell he and Adrian were winning.
“Good to meet you in person, Mister Lurk-tipticket,” Adrian said politely, proving that he could manage to act the part even if he mangled the name beyond the ability of the translators to cope. It was some combination of his mouth and his accent that made the accurate translation effectively impossible, but Lrkk’tptkt was, to his credit, gracious about it.
“Likewise, of course,” Lrkk’tptkt replied. “Please, help yourself to the food as you see fit. We are merely waiting on one more before we can begin.”
He waved a hand towards the buffet table, which Askit was greatly amused to see contained about enough food to feed Adrian for the first half of his day. Ah, the differences between Deathworlders and everybody else…
“Our employer did say you expected Jekal of the Coro Cavan corporation to join us,” Askit said. “I personally find it surprising, given his activities, that he would be so enthusiastic about joining with us.”
“Please, Ambassador Askit,” Lrkk’tptkt said, “let us not insult his intelligence. It is clear who the eventual victors of this… disagreement will be, and it’s only natural to want to be on the right side of history.”
“A practical decision, then,” Askit noted, his glance momentarily drifting over to where Adrian was sampling the cuisine and giving the table they rested on an experimental lift. “Not unexpected of someone such as Jekal. I hope he is as trustworthy as you believe.”
“I have known Jekal for a very long time,” Lrkk’tptkt said, “and I doubt he would betray me aboard my own ship.”
The communicator on Lrkk’tptkt’s bracelet beeped, and he smiled politely. “Speak of the rzktk! It seems we can finally commence.”
Moments later the second door opened to a squad of Allebenellin shock troopers – or robo-slugs as Adrian preferred to call them – carrying anti-tank guns.
They began firing on Adrian almost as soon as they got eyes on him, so immediate that it was clear that they’d come here knowing he was the most dangerous thing in the room. They were armed heavily enough to take down a Vulza, with fusion blades waiting to be drawn if the anti-tank guns were not enough.
Askit sighed, this was just going to be a repeat of the incident aboard the Cora Mavun and nobody had gone home happy after that one, although he had to admit that essentially all of the participants who hadn’t been Adrian had not actually gone home at all. Or lived.
Askit turned to the Rrrrtktktkp’ch businessman with a bored look. “Still think he wouldn’t betray you?”
“But… Jekal!” the businessman managed.
“Jekal is about to experience a dire need to re-strategise to a non-nonviolent solution,” Askit told him with a sniff. “Although I can’t say my associate there will be in a mood to allow it, so it looks like it’ll just be you who makes the wise move to our side.”
Adrian chose that moment to punctuate Askit’s point by pushing forward while carrying the buffet table as cover and punching through the ‘armour’ the Allebenellin had assumed would protect them. Against Adrian’s bare hands that might have worked, but ever since the Cora Mavun he’d carried something he liked to call ‘knuckle dusters’, heavy pieces of hardened steel for him to grip in his hands and take the abuse that his fingers would otherwise endure. It was a simple concept, but when put to use they were a thing of destructive beauty.
“By the stars,” Lrkk’tptkt gasped with wide, disbelieving eyes. “He’s so fast… and he just punched through shock trooper armour!”
“Like I was saying, businessman” Askit continued with a wicked grin. “Welcome to the winning side.”
Council Hall on Cavaras, Corti Directorate Core World
Councilor Hrbrd was going through his reports. He usually liked to do this in front of his employees, he found it tended to make them uncomfortable and wonder what was going to happen to them next.
He was not doing that to Adrian and his little team, even if Margarita was looking particularly uncomfortable. He was doing it because the number of reports that were coming across his desk had jumped roughing one thousand percent since he’d started their little crusade.
“Jekal of the Coro Cavan corporation flew his ship into the sun today,” he said, looking at the report that had tracked the trajectory of the powerful Corti’s vessel as it made its final, fiery descent. “Do you have any idea why a Corti with his kind of wealth and influence would feel the need to do that?”
The group looked between each other, but only Margarita had the decency to look uncomfortable, the others simply appeared to look amused with themselves.
“Extreme sports?” ventured Adrian. “Bad breakup?”
Hrbrd sighed. “Was he alive when this happened?”
“Mostly,” Askit replied. “I think he was missing an arm, and maybe part of a leg.”
Hrbrd sighed again, he seemed to be doing a lot of that lately. They were winning their little war, there was no doubt of that, but it was causing considerable disturbance within the corporations and the Directorate itself, although that disturbance had yet to filter out into general society.
“Then I will assume that he had it coming,” he said. “And at the very least you have managed to convince Lrkk’tptkt to join our noble cause. Having him on our side will go a long way towards convincing others to make the switch… as will Jekal’s unfortunate fate.”
Margarita looked uncertain. “You’re not mad, Councilor?”
“Margarita,” Hrbrd said, “your agents here have managed to infuriate me while delighting me at the same time. Suffice it to say that I am ambivalent, but I cannot deny that you are getting results far more quickly than I had hoped, even taking into consideration their unauthorised visit to Irbzrk.”
“We stopped a monster,” Gdugnir protested. “He would have kept on killing-“
“And as a result there is now a story of a blue-haired beast powerful enough to take down a human,” Hrbrd interrupted. “They even built a statue of it.”
Askit snickered at some unknown source of hilarity.
“The news networks are looking for more stories about the blue-haired beast,” Hrbrd continued. “You are to avoid providing them with any. That is an order!”
“And if it can’t be helped?” Adrian asked.
“Then do whatever needs to be done,” Hrbrd told him, “and make sure that word does not get out. We are getting too close to a significant change in Directorate administration and policy for the news networks to come in and cause problems.”
“Her-bird,” Adrian said, grossly mispronouncing his name as usual but not, as Hrbrd had once thought, on purpose. “When do we start taking these politicians down?”
“The politicians are corrupt,” Hrbrd told him. “They will do as they’re instructed, so long as the money is good enough. Even vote against their own long-term interests.”
Adrian and Askit glanced between each other and began to laugh.
“You’re going to force the corporations into paying the corrupt politicians to pass policy that will get rid of them,” Adrian said with a grin. “Aren’t you?”
Askit grinned similarly, having picked up the habit from the human he’d evidently spent far too much time with. “It’s a good plan, if it works,” he said. “But do you also intend to break down the corporations?”
Hrbrd paused. He hadn’t shared much of his plan, and yet they had managed to outline it so completely after the merest hint. Askit he could understand, the Corti hacker was brilliant, but that Adrian had managed it… that was concerning.
“That’s right,” he admitted unhappily. “But the corporations will need to be fought across the Dominion, not just the Directorate. One step at a time.”